Larry Grey
Lawrence (Larry) Grey is a character and a secondary antagonist on the UK-US period drama, Downton Abbey. He was played by UK actor, Charlie Anson. The thorn in the Crawley's side! Larry is the older son of Richard Grey, Lord Merton, the godfather of Lady Mary Crawley. His mother was dead, and he had a younger brother named Timothy. He and his brother were a lot like their mother in that they were completely snobbish and cruel toward those beneath him. He knew the Crawley family as it was revealed that he had had a crush on Mary's youngest sister, Lady Sybil Branson. However, Lady Sybil did not like him as much as he thought he had liked her. In fact, it was clear that Sybil thought very little of him. When Sybil married former chauffeur Tom Branson, Larry became quite jealous and resentful of him as he had won the affections of Sybil, and that he was left out, despite his superiority towards Tom. As such, he formed a malicious plan. He dropped a drug into Tom's drink, which made him even more drunk. During a dinner, Tom, clearly under the drug's influence, ranted about what was happening in Ireland. The nasty Larry was smiling about the prank he had played, until Sir Anthony Strallan, who was a paramour of Lady Edith Pelham at that time, caught him at the act. In this event, Mary and Edith, usually in disagreement about everything, were on the same page. They thought what Larry had done was, in Edith's words, "Beastly". This earned him wrath from everyone at the table, especially when Larry rudely said that Tom was "nothing but a grubby little chauffeur chap." This caused three of the men at the table, Robert Crawley; his cousin, Matthew Crawley and his father to stand up in anger. Infuriated by his son's vulgarity, Lord Merton dressed him down, and apologized to Tom for what Larry did to him. At that point, Matthew asked Tom to be his best man at the upcoming wedding of him and Mary, stating that "If we're mad enough to marry the Crawley girls, we have to stick together." Sadly, Larry did not learn his lesson even in the face of his utter and public scolding at the table. When his father became engaged to Isobel Crawley Grey, he again was very rude towards everyone. He called her a gold-digger. Not to mention that he insulted Lady Rose Aldridge and her paramour, Atticus Aldridge, mocking him and his family's Jewish background. This earned him more wrath from everyone, and so angered Tom, who had become as protective of Isobel as Matthew would have been, had he still lived, that he called Larry a bastard to his face! Again, Larry was properly ejected from Downton Abbey. And yet again, he learned nothing from his public humiliation. He later married a young and controlling woman named Amelia Cruickshank and between the two of them, schemed to derail his father's engagement to Isobel. They saw her as an impediment to their taking over of Lord Merton's estate and only saw her as someone to take care of him; while they lived it up on his estate. Amelia's rudeness ran the gamut from insulting Isobel on the streets, to slamming the door of the family estate in her face. It took the formidable Violet Crawley to come to the aid of Isobel. The formidable Violet, who was not at all intimidated by the snobs, demanded that Isobel have the right to talk to Dickie (as she called him). In spite of Larry and Amelia's protests, Isobel announced that his valet was to move his things to Crawley House. Not long after that, to the snobs disgust, she announced that she would marry him when it was most convenient. Lord Merton was delighted, while the snobs fumed. The marriage took place off-screen (obviously not attended by Larry), so by the time Edith was married, she was recognized in the county as the new Lady Merton. After that, Larry and Amelia (and Tim as well) were never spoken of again. They ended up gaining Cavenham Park, the Grey family ancestral home, and as Isobel said. "They can wallow in splendor, and much good may it do them!". It was clear that Larry and Amelia were successful in only one thing, alienating people by their snobbery! Category:Downton Abbey characters Category:Downton Abbey villains